What Is the Difference Between PACS and DICOM?

By Carl Avery Sep16,2021

It is impossible to have a thorough medical checkup without graphic information. Up-to-date medical equipment can generate high-quality digital graphic data for diagnostics.

It is impossible to have a thorough medical checkup without graphic information. Up-to-date medical equipment can generate high-quality digital graphic data for diagnostics. But to create and save high-quality images, a healthcare establishment needs special technology, such as a Picture Archiving and Communication System. So, let’s discuss the important topic — digital medical graphic data.

To study a clinical history, any doctor needs digital medical imaging. Such visual data display a structural and functional image of human organs to diagnose diseases and track their treatment. Diagnostic imaging is widely used in healthcare because electronic graphic files carry detailed data. The main shortcoming of the data is the big size of the files.

For general convenience, one format for all diagnostic graphic information was created. It is named DICOM or Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine and has the following advantages:

  • It is easy to convert images to other graphic formats.
  • A health provider can use any graphics editor to open and work with the data.

All this digital information can be stored, transmitted, and even compared easily. The medical data standard we are talking about allows grouping all the images and related information of one patient, as well as printing, sending, and displaying them.

But such files require storage systems of adequate capacity and quality. So, the challenge arises to create a computer network that will unite the flow of diagnostic images into a single information system.

PACS is a hardware and software system designed to record, systemize, and archive digital medical data in the DICOM format. It is used to digitally transmit electronic images and patients’ reports across many healthcare organizations. With the help of PACS, you can pass information between different institutions over the network.

So, DICOM is a common format of medical images that can be transferred via PACS. If you wish to use DICOM standards in your medical establishment, we can offer custom DICOM integration solutions. Please visit our site to learn details.

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